EV REVOLUTION CHARGING LOCAL STARTUP SECTOR

While the range of Romanian startups in the emerging electric vehicle (EV) industry has been rather limited up to now, the launch of Dacia’s first electric car, slated for 2021, could be a game changer for the local automotive market and boost entrepreneurial initiatives in this field.

By Ovidiu Posirca

The International Energy Agency predicts that 55 percent of all new car sales and 33 percent of the global fleet will be electric by 2040

Car maker Dacia, which is owned by France’s Renault, is planning to roll out its own long-range of electric cars at very competitive prices. The first model, called Dacia Spring, will be launched next year and will be based on the Renault City K-ZE, which is sold in China. The e-Dacia will have a range of up to 200 kilometers on a single charge. The biggest question is where the new vehicle will be manufactured. In Romania, Dacia has a large manufacturing base for petrol-fueled cars, so some media outlets have reported that the car might get built outside the country, although a final decision hasn’t yet been made on this matter. Nevertheless, the mainstream production of an electric car in Romania could stimulate the development of a fresh wave of startups in the automotive industry. The charging infrastructure for electric cars and improved battery technologies could be a starting point for the new era of mobility. “We might see something similar with this new electric project. I have no idea how many startups

will rise once Dacia goes electric, but we’ll probably see some excitement, less range anxiety among Romanian drivers, and a little more unrest among other car makers. Let’s not forget that the main reasons why the electric market is still undeveloped are the lack of charging infrastructure and the price tags which are still prohibitive for most of us. If Dacia’s electric project turns out to be as interesting as it sounds, they could change the mobility game in the entire region, undoubtedly,” Daniel Pintilie, founder of WATTO, told BR.

His startup aims to develop a network of ultra-fast charging stations in Romania and the wider Central and Eastern Europe region. WATTO is working on units that can provide a charging level of 80 percent for car batteries in less than 10 minutes. The startup is currently looking to secure funding to build a pilot station and has also applied for EU grants. The plan is to have such high-power stations along the main European road corridors.

The critical infrastructure for electric car charging is still in the early stages of development in Romania. Close to 400 charging stations were operational across the country at the end of 2019, with a half-yearly growth rate of about 30 percent. Meanwhile, some 76 percent of all charging stations in the European Union were in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and the UK.

Romania had around 4.41 charging stations per 100,000 urban inhabitants, compared to the EU average of 52.1 stations as of 2017, according to Eurostat, the statistics office of the EU. However, the country has no ultra-fast charging station of 150 to 350 kilowatts. Across the world there are around 632,000 public charging stations that serve an electric fleet of around 5 million vehicles, while the investments needed to build up the global electric infrastructure is estimated at USD 6 trillion, according to a report by CB Insights.

Furthermore, the International Energy Agency predicts that 55 percent of all new car sales and 33 percent of the global fleet will be electric by 2040.

“Having an electric car manufactured in Romania will have a broad positive economic impact as it will generate opportunities for numerous suppliers, sub-parts manufacturers, and integrators,” Daniel Rosner, programme manager at Innovation Labs, told BR. Established car producers and suppliers could provide seed capital for startups and work with entrepreneurs on the development and infrastructure and manufacturing facilities for EVs, suggested Rosner.

Meanwhile, more Romanians are interested in buying an EV, and the list price of such cars is reduced by around EUR 10,000 through a state subsidy. In the first half of 2020, sales of electric cars climbed 31.6 percent to 600 units compared to the same period of last year, according to the Car Producers and Importers’ Association (APIA). Electric and hybrid cars had a share of 5.9 percent of all registrations in the first half, while the rest belonged to vehicles powered by fossil fuels.

Global auto sales have been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the auto market will be bumpy for the next three years, according to a BloombergNEF report. The transition to electric cars will stay on track in the long term, but there will be differences in the adoption of EVs by countries around the world. While global car sales are set to fall by 23 percent this year, EV sales will also decrease for the first time in the modern era to around 1.7 million units. The report points out that this year there are over 500,000 ebuses, almost 400,000 electric delivery vans and trucks, and 184 million electric mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles on the road globally. In addition, over 7 million passenger EVs are currently being driven internationally.

“The long-term outlook for EVs remains bright, as fundamental cost and technology improvements outweigh the short-term impacts of the pandemic. Some near-term EV model launches will be delayed, but manufacturers so far are sticking to their long-term electrification commitments,” according to

COVID-19 CHALLENGES TRANSITION TO ELECTRIC FUTURE

the report. China and Europe will account for more than 70 percent of all EV sales by the end of this decade.

Pintilie of WATTO suggested that people would not buy more EVs if infrastructure was not better developed. “The increasing number of people and the large volumes of goods require different ways of transportation, while people’s needs for mobility must be addressed in a responsible and efficient way,” says the founder.

In 2019, some 240 EV companies raised USD 17 billion from investors, according to a report by EVBoosters and Venture IQ. The most active scaleup in 2019 was Rivian, which raised USD 2.9 billion. The company is set to make 100,000 electric delivery vans for e-commerce giant Amazon.

Integration versus specialisation – what is the best choice for your company?

In recent years, the trend among agencies has gone from 360-degree communication to specialisation; from strong, independent agencies to consolidation under a single roof of a strong group. From the idea that smaller agencies are more creative while bigger ones provide integrated and more diverse services to working more with freelancers and external specialists and outsourcing growing on both the agency and the client sides. Let’s take a look at how 2020 has changed the agency landscape and what we should look forward to in the near future.

By Romanita Oprea

Raluca Mihaila, Utopic Brain

Oxygen, a company founded almost 12 years ago as a PR agency with current offices in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, took over advertising and digital group Frank, and repositioned itself as an integrated communication agency. Tereza Tranakas took the lead at Oxygen as managing partner. Following a complex brand audit carried out last year, both on the market as well as among clients and employees, the two agencies decided to continue operating under a single brand – Oxygen – with the headline “With a Heart for Business.” Oxygen’s mission is to sustainably grow brands and business

Tereza Tranakas, Oxygen

through insights, strategic approaches, and result-oriented integrated communication campaigns.

Today, the agency is structured so as to offer strategic communication consultancy services and integrated project management for its clients. Oxygen includes almost 50 professionals who are specialised in several areas: advertising, PR, digital & data, social media, A/V production, content marketing, corporate communication, brand & influencer marketing, crisis communication, internal communication, Public Affairs, and CSR. Together they deliver creative solutions and concepts that bring results. Why do they believe that it’s time for integrated communication solutions under one roof? Because more than ever, clients need to see results, to obtain solutions and to have a partner that can provide seamless communication services from strategy and all the way to implementation, irrespective of channels. “Thinking in terms of channels is obsolete. Thinking in terms of solutions is what we do. We put together strategic and creative minds from various disciplines, to solve a client brief or problem. Having those capabilities in-house and running in sync like a perfect orchestra makes the creative process more efficient and delivers better results. We’ve always had this approach, but now I feel we have formalised it,” Oxygen’s managing partner explained.

In turn, Laura Iane, creative director at pastel, believes that this is a matter of choosing a business model. As far as the people of pastel are concerned, they have decided to have an integrated approach – this helps them avoid the shallow road, offering a strong overview which helps them build long-term relationships and keeps strategy and creativity at the heart of any challenge. “At the same time, this approach is not the absolute truth. Integrated solutions need specialised points of view,” Iane noted.

A mix of integration and specialisation would also be the preferred model for marketing strategist Raluca Mihaila, also Utopic Brain’s owner. Although specialisation is of great importance, being able to look around, professionally connect the dots and holistically approach your expertise from various

angles is of even greater value. “There is a very big ‘but’ here. An expert can’t be a generalist, so it’s really about making a choice, both as an agency and as a client,” Mihaila argued. In her view, a client is extremely comfortable knowing where to find the experts on the market – the only question is whether you can afford them, because top notch expertise is expensive, and whether you can wait for a free spot, as they are usually booked well in advance. Moreover, it is equally comfortable to go to any agency built around the principle

of “one place for all” and, for a good enough service and an affordable amount of money, solve your problem when you need it solved.

“As an agency/services provider, when you choose to specialise, you decide to say no to all other activities you might pursue, but you aim to be the greatest of the very few. Plus, you get to set the price, hence narrow down the people who are able to afford you. It should be a choice based on indisputable available talent, skill, and intellectual property! When you build your agency around the fear of missing out on opportunities and with a desire to cover all areas of expertise just to make more money and constrain clients to have to come to you, you risk becoming too vague in what you offer, too big for your own good, and too slow for your own need of agility,” Mihaila warned.

And yet, as we have all experienced, things can change during a crisis, as budgets shrink and the greatest experts (with skills that are irrelevant in solving the crisis) can be left aside while clients gather around the cheaper alternatives. In time, things realign and quality regains its reputation.

“For business reasons, mergers and acquisitions, vertical and horizontal integrations make sense every time an opportunity arises, but I believe the wise thing to do is to keep divisions separated, even independent from one another. I believe the future belongs to generalists rather than to niche experts, but I strongly feel that at any given point, when we go through a very special challenge, we will most likely seek that specific place with that specific person who is able to deliver that specific solution to our specific problem,” Raluca Mihaila explained. Her point of view is supported by both Laura Iane and Tereza Tranakas. “What do we integrate if not specific ideas thought out by different types of specialists? A great integrator has a strong vision, guts, and good team of specialised people,” said Iane. And, according to Oxygen’s representative, the agency of the future is actually one that has a core team of senior communications professionals who understand strategy and can provide integrated solutions to clients, but at the same time have a flexible network of collaborators to tap into various consumer groups. Because both agencies and brands need to connect directly with that end consumer, not live in a bubble. Therefore, involving key members of various communities in the creation process will ultimately bring more authentic and relevant results.

What about outsourcing? And why should a company do it? “Because communication is not the core activity of any company outside the communication industry. Companies should have a primary focus on delivering the best product they can deliver and then sell it. Any process serving this purpose is secondary (and can be outsourced) but remains important in the products ecosystem (so the outsourcing should be done carefully by experts),” said Utopic Brain’s representative.

“Advertising without outsourcing is a bit of a stretch. Is like thinking that a group of people can cover every topic in this world or know every skill there is. First, I think the main reason for outsourcing should be adding value to the table. It could be a coder or a doctor, a dancer or a social media specialist. It really depends what you think is missing to make the project insightful, real, and helpful. It could also be that you need to make a process more efficient process through an agency or save some money,” Laura Iane added.

CHANGE FOR THE FUTURE As easy or as hard as the present is, we are always looking into the future and thinking about how the situation of today will impact the industry in the coming years. So, what should we be looking at? According to Tranakas, the communications industry is no stranger to changes, having been in constant change in the past 10-20 years. Nothing stays the same, and technology has really been a driver for the evolution of our market. And that is the exciting part of working in this industry, as nobody really ever gets bored. “The pandemic is also a game changer, and it does bring forward some of the trends that were already being shaped in the industry – authenticity, no-bullshit brands, sustainability & care for the environment, digitalization, real-time & data, etc,” Oxygen’s representative argued.

“I don’t believe this pandemic was a big enough trigger for the communication industry to irremediable change. While the media mix has already shifted towards digital, the principles they use to plan their campaigns are the same. What I believe would forever change the communication industry would be either a stellar brand that could raise the level of today’s advertising worldwide or a collective intelligence of consumers fed up with how advertising looks today and demanding a new era. The first one is more likely to occur during our lifetime,” Mihaila concluded.